5 Books Every Social Manager Must Read

In a digital world where social media platforms are ever changing and transforming into enormous bubbles of information overload, there has never been a more important time to have a proficient understanding of social media management.

When it comes to navigating social media, it is best to think of the changing staircase in the Harry Potter movies. Just because Harry made it to his Hogwarts destination with a certain staircase sequence, does not guarantee the same staircase will get him to where he wants to go the next time.

There are over 60 million business pages on Facebook and if you want to engage with your audience and succeed in social media marketing it is best to have a wide-range understanding about all the areas you need to cover as a social media manager.

Below, we have compiled the 5 books that every social media manager must read!

1. The Art of Social Media: Power Tips for Power Users – Guy Kawasaki & Peg Fitzpatrick

This book is the go-to-guide for getting started in social media. It will give you an improved understanding about building followers on different social media sites, integrating blogs with social media and improving overall connections online. This book offers a beginner’s step by step guide to increasing your social media presence.

2. Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook – Gary Vaynerchuk

If there was an iron throne for the ruler of social media marketing, Vaynerchuck would be the rightful heir. A social media pioneer and advisor to Uber, Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr – Vaynerchuk knows his stuff. Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook is a New York Times best seller, highlighting marketing strategies and tactics that you should engage in and avoid to best be heard in an overcrowded digital environment.

3. The Power of Visual Storytelling: How to use visuals, videos and social media to market your brand – Ekaterina Walter and Jessica Gioglio

Did you know visual content is more than 40 times more likely to be shared on social media than any other content? The human brain processes visuals up to 60,000 times faster than text. In this book, Walter and Gioglio demonstrate the importance of creativity in visual storytelling to capture the viewers fleeting attention. The Power of Visual Storytelling explains how to combine photos, videos and infographics with social media to best strengthen your brand online. This book should be a staple in any social media manager’s bookshelf, co-written by Ekaterina Walter – 2014 Forbes World Top 40 Social Media Marketing Talent.

4. Social Media Strategy – Keith A. Quesenberry

There are approximately 3 billion people worldwide using some sort of social media platform. If you want to guarantee your company’s success in the present and the future, it is important to have a social media strategy in place. With all the different social media platforms emerging this can often seem like a very daunting task. Social Media Strategy presents a comprehensive step-by-step social media plan for your company. This book covers theory and practical examples of how social media fits in marketing, advertising and public relations. Quesenberry offers 25 social media channel breakdowns including blogs, forums, microblogging, geo-location, ratings and reviews.

5. Hug your haters – Jay Baer

Have you ever come across a negative Facebook comment on a company’s wall about poor service and it has something like 100k likes and 8,000 comments of pure distaste for the company? I’m sure you have and it almost always stems from poor handling of customer service. Hug Your Haters is here to help your business transition to the online department of customer support. This book offers a comprehensive guide to handling internet trolls, public complaints, how fast you need to reply to various social media channels and software recommendations to assist with customer support. The best part of this book is the fold out poster of “The Hatrix”, which is your go to guide of strategies for different scenarios. Baer explains that customer service is now a spectator sport and we couldn’t agree more. Make sure you add this one to your collection.

These 5 books will help you on your way to becoming the savvy social media manager that you were destined to be. What are on your must read list?